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Tuesday, June 3, 2014

NO, WE DON'T MISS ROBINSON CANO'S BAT

Look, the reality is, the Yankees have a productive lineup right now... on paper. The names pop out at me. If you look at the statistics from guys like Jacoby Ellsbury,Brian McCann, even Mark Teixeira, when healthy, we do not need Robinson Cano at all. We just need to get hitting. We have the tools, we just need to start producing.

Robinson Cano is a great player and a run producer, no question, but Ken Davidoff takes the easy road mentioning that Cano is missed in the Bronx. He's not missed, we don't want him in New York... we also don't need him. Davidoff writes:

"With one year down and nine to go — reasonably assuming these two
teams won’t face each other in the playoffs — Robinson Cano remains
undefeated wearing a Mariners uniform in Yankee Stadium.

And that leads to an even more painful conclusion for the Yankees and
their fans: Sure, Cano might miss the Stadium’s hitter-friendly
confines and maybe even the aura and mystique, too. But it’s nowhere as
much as the Yankees miss Cano...What’s telling, however, is how superior Cano’s numbers stand compared
to the three guys the Yankees paid handsomely to upgrade their offense..."

Look, it's easy to say that the Yankees miss Cano when they're losing. We all know this article would never be published if the Yankees were winning. The bottom line is, the Yankees aren't playing well, and their pitching is a huge part of the problem. We need to stop relying solely on Masahiro Tanaka and we need to get better quality starts from the "fill in" crew, as well as Hiroki Kuroda. And yes... McCann, isn't exactly "Munson-like" OR "McCann-like", but he's getting there.

Mark Teixeira has been on and off the bench all season. Carlos Beltran is being revealed as human and hurt too. And Alex Rodriguez is suspended. The point is, the pieces of the puzzle we thought would be more productive just aren't, but let's also not forget that Robinson Cano did not carry the Yankees when he was in the Bronx either. If he did, we would have been in the playoffs last season. 1 player does not make a team.

What was kind of glossed over in Davidoff's piece was the fact that Cano never wanted to stay a Yankee... so, do the fans, or the Yankees truly miss him? Not really. He's a Mariner now, he can continue his "superior numbers" there, with his big stadium and his 3rd place Mariners team. No one hears about Robinson Cano anymore. He got what he wanted... money and no pressure, and that's OK with many of us.

Sure, the Yankees stink right now, but we are doing our best with what we have. I can only imagine what will happen when we're 100% healthy. We will and can get better.

But to suggest the Yankees miss Cano for his production... I don't think we actually miss it. The reality is, we have the players we need and they will do the job. The bigger problem however is getting over the hurdle of injury and getting on the same page to get on a winning streak. That my friends doesn't need Cano... we just need to play like we're capable of playing. Plain and simple.

For the record, I love Ken Davidoff... but we just disagree on this one.